Since the hunt for alligator snapping turtles went so well the week of September 17th, I decided to make a return trip to the Florida panhandle the following week. The creek and river I would be hunting in Jackson County had not received any rain since my previous visit and so most likely the water levels would be lower and the water clearer. This turned out to be the case.
This creek supports a very healthy population of yellow-bellied turtles, Trachemys scripta as well as Mobile cooters, Pseudemys concinna. Both species can commonly be seen basking on the fallen trees or branches that are strewn about the waterway.
Here is what the water usually looks like in the creek...
Although the water depth is fairly shallow in places it may be as deep as nine or ten feet and this is especially true as one gets closer to the river that this creeks flows into. In the gravel beds immediately below shallow sections of the creek fossils and artifacts can be found by searching the bottom with a dive mask and I like to spend at least a little time each trip engaged in this. Here is an adult male T. scripta that I found literally asleep under a downed tree in about four feet of water...
He had lost the really lemon yellow color that most of the smaller animals from this area have like this juvenile...
After about an hour of snorkeling I was getting pretty chilled and had only found a few fossil shark teeth, some fossil turtle material and the usual beer bottles, bottle caps and broken glass from the local red-neck population. Then, while searching the bottom in about eight feet of water I came across this gem...
NICE! A perfect point. But it was tiny compared to this one that I found years ago...
This creek is well known as a place for 'tubers', people who float down rivers in inflated car or truck inner tubes. During the summer months the place is overrun with kids, college student and drunks, all floating down the creek. Since the water is rather cold and fast moving some interesting things happen--people lose stuff. After an hour or so their fingers and toes shrink up and very often they lose their rings. Or when splashing around other kinds of jewelry come off. A few years ago I found a really nice 1/2 carat earring and on another occasion a silver ankle bracelet on the creek bottom.
About a half hour after finding the point something shiny caught my eye under a ledge...
Mixed in the gravel on the creek bottom was this...
It had algae and snails on it but after some rubbing it cleaned up real nice. That thing looked precious. I mean-- P R E C I O U S!!!
Oddly, if fit on my right ring finger perfectly too! How strange, a man finds a gold ring on the bottom of a creek...
After that ring was on my finger for just a moment I suddenly started feeling a lot better about things. I felt kind of funky and weird but at the same time very good-- like I could catch any turtle I wanted!
Anyway, it was time to move on down the creek to the river. As I had already found some nice alligator snappers the previous week, this time I started looking more for map turtles and loggerhead musk turtles. There were a number of Barbour's map turtles, Graptemys barbouri but all of the smaller individuals that I saw had their shells already covered in algae. I wanted a pristine hatchling for photographs so I didn't bother netting any barbouri that day.
I did manage to spot this little neonate loggerhead though...
The orange (or pink) plastrons of the hatchlings are neat but as the turtle grows it will fade to a yellowish color...
A little later an adult loggerhead with what appeared bright yellow color was spotted clinging to a cypress knee. As my canoe drifted past I made a grab for it. Man! What color!
I don't think I've ever seen one with such nice markings and color before...
This young adult male had some great pattern for sure...
A closeup of the 'vinculae' of his inner thighs...
He was some loggerhead!
And as soon as I placed him back into the river he dashed off into deeper water...
The last turtle I captured to photograph that day was this little guy...
A young-of-the-year gulf coast spiny soft-shelled turtle, Apalone spinifera asper that was buried in the sand in only an inch of water right against the shoreline. I had mistaken a hogchoker sole for one of these the previous week.
After taking a few quick photos he was placed back in the shallows and he bolted away leaving only a puff of bottom sediment in his wake. What a fast little turtle!
There were no alligator snappers found that day but I still had a great time.
This creek supports a very healthy population of yellow-bellied turtles, Trachemys scripta as well as Mobile cooters, Pseudemys concinna. Both species can commonly be seen basking on the fallen trees or branches that are strewn about the waterway.
Here is what the water usually looks like in the creek...
Although the water depth is fairly shallow in places it may be as deep as nine or ten feet and this is especially true as one gets closer to the river that this creeks flows into. In the gravel beds immediately below shallow sections of the creek fossils and artifacts can be found by searching the bottom with a dive mask and I like to spend at least a little time each trip engaged in this. Here is an adult male T. scripta that I found literally asleep under a downed tree in about four feet of water...
He had lost the really lemon yellow color that most of the smaller animals from this area have like this juvenile...
After about an hour of snorkeling I was getting pretty chilled and had only found a few fossil shark teeth, some fossil turtle material and the usual beer bottles, bottle caps and broken glass from the local red-neck population. Then, while searching the bottom in about eight feet of water I came across this gem...
NICE! A perfect point. But it was tiny compared to this one that I found years ago...
This creek is well known as a place for 'tubers', people who float down rivers in inflated car or truck inner tubes. During the summer months the place is overrun with kids, college student and drunks, all floating down the creek. Since the water is rather cold and fast moving some interesting things happen--people lose stuff. After an hour or so their fingers and toes shrink up and very often they lose their rings. Or when splashing around other kinds of jewelry come off. A few years ago I found a really nice 1/2 carat earring and on another occasion a silver ankle bracelet on the creek bottom.
About a half hour after finding the point something shiny caught my eye under a ledge...
Mixed in the gravel on the creek bottom was this...
It had algae and snails on it but after some rubbing it cleaned up real nice. That thing looked precious. I mean-- P R E C I O U S!!!
Oddly, if fit on my right ring finger perfectly too! How strange, a man finds a gold ring on the bottom of a creek...
After that ring was on my finger for just a moment I suddenly started feeling a lot better about things. I felt kind of funky and weird but at the same time very good-- like I could catch any turtle I wanted!
Anyway, it was time to move on down the creek to the river. As I had already found some nice alligator snappers the previous week, this time I started looking more for map turtles and loggerhead musk turtles. There were a number of Barbour's map turtles, Graptemys barbouri but all of the smaller individuals that I saw had their shells already covered in algae. I wanted a pristine hatchling for photographs so I didn't bother netting any barbouri that day.
I did manage to spot this little neonate loggerhead though...
The orange (or pink) plastrons of the hatchlings are neat but as the turtle grows it will fade to a yellowish color...
A little later an adult loggerhead with what appeared bright yellow color was spotted clinging to a cypress knee. As my canoe drifted past I made a grab for it. Man! What color!
I don't think I've ever seen one with such nice markings and color before...
This young adult male had some great pattern for sure...
A closeup of the 'vinculae' of his inner thighs...
He was some loggerhead!
And as soon as I placed him back into the river he dashed off into deeper water...
The last turtle I captured to photograph that day was this little guy...
A young-of-the-year gulf coast spiny soft-shelled turtle, Apalone spinifera asper that was buried in the sand in only an inch of water right against the shoreline. I had mistaken a hogchoker sole for one of these the previous week.
After taking a few quick photos he was placed back in the shallows and he bolted away leaving only a puff of bottom sediment in his wake. What a fast little turtle!
There were no alligator snappers found that day but I still had a great time.
